On September 23, House Republicans issued a document called
A Pledge to America.
(1)While it has some laudable goals, it
is big on grandiosity and short on specifics. I will use it as a basis for my
column in light of the November 2 election.

Economy

Many are
citing the fragile economy as a reason to extend the tax cuts of the Bush era.
The Pledge claims we need to keep the tax cuts for jobs. We have had these cuts
in effect since 2003. As of April 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, we have lost 8.42
million jobs since
January 2008. Additionally the BLS reported that there are another 8.3 million
people who would like to work full time but are working part time. (2)

In
2009 the Fortune 500 shed 821,000 jobs, enabling them to increase their
earnings to $301 billion, an increase of 335% over 2008. (3)The gap in earnings between top executives and lowest employees
continues to grow. The top 2% of income grew in 2009 while everyone else’s
declined. (4)

The number in poverty grew to an all time high of 44 million,
nearly 1 of 7. (5)Without the social
safety nets, this number would be much higher.

Those tax
cuts are creating a wealthy few, destroying jobs and putting people in poverty.

The Constitution

The Republicans wrote in their
pledge, “We pledge to honor the Constitution as constructed by its framers and
honor the original intent of those precepts that have been consistently ignored–
particularly the Tenth Amendment.” Do these Republicans support governing by
only white male landowners – the original meaning of “We the people”? Do they
support the return to slavery and elimination of women’s right to vote? Do they
support the election of US Senators by state legislatures rather than the
people? All these are enshrined in the original Constitution (2a)

The pledge continues with, “We will
end the attack on free enterprise by repealing jobkilling
policies….” Do these include minimum wage, 40 hour work week, unemployment
insurance, and workmen’s compensation? They do include the repeal of a new
requirement that business report all purchases onForm 1099. (6)Billions of dollars in tax revenue are lost because businesses
understate their income or overstate their expenses. This requirement will help
to end those practices.

Health care reform

For at
least fifty years legislators and the public have talked about reforming our
health care system, especially how we pay for health care. Finally significant
health care reform legislation was passed in March.

The pledge
says that “The American people wanted one thing out of health care reform:
lower costs.” This American wants coverage for all people as well as lower
costs. Since it has not been fully implemented we don’t yet know if it will
lower costs.

The Pledge
promises to repeal the health care reform law and replace it with “common sense
solutions” that would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage for
pre-existing conditions and allow people to buy insurance across state lines.
These proposals are in clear violation of their own stated support for a strict
interpretation of the Constitution. Without mandating universal coverage people
will wait to purchase insurance until they have a medical condition.

Energy

At least
for fifty years economists, environmentalists and othershave warned us about our dependence on
oil as our primary source of energy. Some of the stimulus money was used to
encourage alternative energy production. While the results are not significant
in the short term they will have great impact on our future. Wind farms and,
solar energy production must be encouraged. We have already seen both in
various places. A solar shingle company is coming to Midland soon with one hundred new jobs.

Foreign policy

President
Obama has favorably changed the attitude around the world toward the United States.
The pledge says that “National security is … protecting our citizens, bringing
certainty to an uncertain world, supporting those who volunteer in the service
of their country and defend our way of life, using every tool to protect
Americans from threats at our borders.” While this is emotionally appealing,
“certainty” is an illusion and “using every tool” is a dangerous statement.

Redistricting

The main
reason for taking a census evry ten years is that the
data is used for apportioning US representatives and forming their districts.
The next state legislature will draw the boundaries for the new districts.

I will use
the above to decide for whom to vote at all levels of government.

(2a) Interpreting “We the people” as only
“white male landowners” is an interpretation based on historical conditions. Women
were clearly not part of the equation as they still are excluded from full
participation in public life. I’m sure there were some non-white male
landowners who did have same rights as whites, but these were the exception and
not the norm for the writers of the Constitution. Even in my lifetime renters
were barred from voting in millage elections.

For many years I have been hearing about the “federal tax gap”.The tax gap is what the federal government
believes should be paid in taxes versus what is actually paid in taxes.The tax gap is estimated to be approximately
$350 billion annually.The tax gap comes
primarily from three areas of noncompliance with the tax law: under reporting
of taxable income (by under reporting revenue or over reporting expenses),
underpayment of taxes, or non-filing of returns.A significant majority of the tax gap is
created by those that under report their taxable income.

The federal government is running a $1.6 trillion deficit in the current
fiscal year.Additionally, the new
healthcare entitlement program will create huge cash drains on the federal
budget in future years.To help close
the tax gap and fund this deficit spending, the federal government has expanded
informational reporting requirements of businesses. Under current tax law, if a business makes
payments in excess of $600 to a person or a business over the course of a year,
it must file Form 1099 to report those payments. One copy of the form is sent
to the IRS, and another copy is sent to the person to whom you made the
payments.Payments made to a corporation
and payments made in exchange for merchandise are not required to be reported
on a 1099.

Tucked away in just
23 lines of Section 9006 of the Healthcare reform bill be a dramatic change in
the 1099 reporting requirements.No
longer will corporations or payments for merchandise be exempt 1099
reporting.This new law is effective
January 1, 2012.A large majority of
payments made by a business will now be reported on a 1099.This reporting requirement will have a two
pronged effect on those that under report their taxable income.First, most of a business’ revenue will now
be reported to the IRS, so understating large amounts of revenue will be more
difficult.Secondly, a business will be
less likely to overstate its expenses as it will need to report where those
expenses were paid.

There is no doubt
this will be an administrative nightmare for many businesses in the first year
or two.Taxpayer identification numbers
need to be collected for all vendors.Have
a large business related meal at a restaurant, this will need to be reported on
a 1099.Spend a week in a hotel in WacoTexas,
you will need to send a 1099.

I do not believe the
IRS will not be able to match these payments dollar for dollar to a tax return
as there are too many variables involved.However, it will prevent wholesale abuse by taxpayers and force more
people into compliance knowing the IRS will have more information at their
disposal.

Responses

Todd Gambrell, chairman of the Midland County
Republican Party responded to my column with a Forum article on Octobe4 24.

Joe Weir, the Chairman of the Midland County Democratic
Party responded to Gambrell on October 31.

The
following are from the MidlandDaily News and are copied here with
permission.

Todd Gambrell

“Bufka's attacks on pledge are baseless “

Sun
Oct 24, 2010.

Norb
Bufka's recent attack on the House Republican Pledge
to America
went far beyond the pale and he should apologize to every Republican,
Independent and Democrat for even writing it. The insinuations and baseless
accusations he makes have no place in constructive political discourse.

The
American people have been speaking out about their federal government. While
Washington Democrats have pushed an agenda of borrowing, spending, taxes, and
bailouts, the people of mid-Michigan have joined a nationwide chorus of voices
that want less spending, lower taxes and a smaller, smarter government.

Republicans
like Dave Camp have been listening and are ready to lead American with a fresh
start with a fresh new approach. Our agenda, A Pledge to America, is the
result of our conversations with everyday Americans. It's based on the
principles of smaller and more accountable government, economic freedom, lower
taxes, fiscal responsibility, protecting life,
American values and the Constitution. Our agenda also provides for a robust
national defense that confronts and defeats the terrorist threat.

The
single greatest issue the American people want us to address is getting America back to
work. Michigan
has had either the highest or second highest unemployment rates in the nation
for the last four years. The national unemployment rate has not been this high
for this long since the Great Depression. It's time for Democrats to admit that
their Washington-focused approach of starting new government programs has
failed, and address this major problem with solutions that will help the
private sector create jobs. Republicans are ready to permanently stop job-killing
tax hikes, rein in Washington's
red tape and repeal job-killing mandates.

Families
and small businesses have been making hard choices to balance their budgets,
and they've told me that they want Washington
to do the same. The Republican pledge to America is that we are ready to
stop the federal government's out-of-control spending spree. Our plan will cut
spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, put a hard cap on new
discretionary spending, and require that Congress cut its own budget and learn to
do more with less. Republicans will deal with spending in ways that Democrats
have refused, by ending the TARP bailout and putting a stop to government
control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Everywhere
you go people say they want health care reform that lowers costs, not the
massive job-killing government takeover that Democrats imposed. Dave Camp was
the only member of Congress who introduced a bill that actually lowered
premiums - for families, small businesses and large corporations alike. That is
the kind of leadership we need in Washington
to repeal this bad law and replace it with common sense medical liability
reforms, the opportunity to buy health insurance across state lines and
accessibility to health care for all, regardless of pre-existing conditions or
past illnesses.

Finally,
the American people are frustrated with more than Washington's spending and failed policies.
They also want basic changes in how Washington
enacts those policies. That's why Republicans are committed to restoring
people's trust in Congress through some fundamental changes to how we do the
people's business. It's time to make sure that bills are read, debated,
discussed and understood before votes are cast. Dave Camp will make sure Washington keeps this
pledge by voting to publish all legislation online for at least three days and
requiring that the bills we pass are based on a specific constitutional
authority. Republicans are also calling for changes that will make it easier
for reform-minded legislators to get a vote on amendments that cut spending.

That
is what the Pledge to America
and Dave Camp are all about and that is what I will keep in mind when I go to
the ballot box on November 2.

Todd
M. Gambrell is an attorney with Lambert, Leser, Isackson, Cook & Giunta, P.C. He is chairman of the Midland County Republican party.

Joe Weir

Todd Gambrell's letter "Bufka's Attacks
on Pledge are Baseless" suggests that Mr. Bufka should apologize for his
article which was critical of the Republicans' widely panned "Pledge to America".
Mr. Gambrell claims that Mr. Bufka's criticisms were
"baseless" and "far beyond the pale". However, Mr. Gambrell
fails to mention even one of Mr. Bufka's criticisms
much less refute them. The reader is left wondering what exactly Mr. Bufka got
wrong. Apparently, nothing in particular, nothing that Mr. Gambrell could quite
put his finger on anyhow.

Instead
Mr. Gambrell turns his attention defending Dave Camp and the Republican agenda
of the same old policies that we've heard from them for 30 years - tax cuts and
vague references to balancing the budget. This is the exact same set of
promises Camp and the Republican majority broke back in 2001 when they turned
the Clinton era surpluses into the record
deficits of the Bush years, the exact same policies that resulted in a near-death
experience for the U.S.
economy, the same incompetence that cost 5 million Americans their jobs. But
Dave Camp doesn't want to look back, he wants to look forward. I know that
because he told me that himself when I asked him about his dismal economic
record. I guess if I had Camp's record I wouldn't want to look back either.

What
the country really needs from Dave Camp and the Republican Party are some new
ideas. For example, we all know that the most powerful economic force in the
Republican universe is tax cuts. Indeed, listening to Republicans, one would
conclude that tax-cuts are the only force, the solution to every problem. So
how can it be that Michigan
has the second highest unemployment rate in the nation but has a per-person tax
burden that is 30th lowest of the states. That means that there are 29 states
that have higher tax rates than Michigan
but lower unemployment rates. How is that? What about the Michigan business tax? According to an AP
article published in this very paper, "Michigan's corporate tax burden fell from
12th in 1989 to 39th in 2007 ... the largest drop in tax burden among all the
states,". That leaves 38 states with higher
business taxes than Michigan,
but lower unemployment rates. How does that square with the tax cut theory? And
Michigan's
government is smaller now than it was in the 1970s. Adjusted for inflation
revenues are where they were in 1964. If tax-cuts and smaller government are
the solution, when is it finally going to start working?

How
about the U.S.
overall? Of the 30 most developed nations there are only four with lower tax
burdens than the US.
These are Turkey, Mexico, Japan,
and South Korea.
Turkey and Mexico aren't
exactly economic utopias. Japan
has a lower overall tax-rate than the United States but it has been mired
in recession since 1990. On the other end of the spectrum we have countries
like Germany, France, Sweden,
the UK, and Canada, all
with their famously high tax rates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(www.bls.gov) all also have lower unemployment rates than the U.S. That's
right. The French have a lower unemployment rate than us. Something just isn't
working with the tax cut thing. I like tax cuts too. But I would like them more
if they really worked.

Could
it possibly be more complicated than simply cutting taxes? Maybe we also need a
high quality educational system? Or a well maintained infrastructure? Or
appropriate regulation on Wall Street? How about a strong manufacturing sector?
That would probably be good.

The
problem is that there is nothing new in the Republican Pledge. It's just a
continuation of George W. Bush's ruinous economics in a glossy package. If you
want proof, just look at Dave Camp's article (see it below) on the front page
of yesterday's paper. A great American president once said "It is only
common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try
another" Well, it failed. It's time for us to admit it and try another.

Camp running for re-election

Posted:
Saturday, October 30, 2010 12:30 pm

By
Ralph E. Wirtz for the Daily News

On
just about any weekend, and sometimes during the week, one can find Dave Camp
in Midland.

You
might run into him at a coffee shop or a football game, or perhaps in the lawn
and garden section of a department store. He still makes the trek just about
every week, despite taking on more and more responsibility in Washington as the 4th District’s representative
and ranking member on the House
Ways and Means Committee.

Still,
he has made nearly every vote since he was first elected to Congress in 1990
when the 4th District was still the 10th District. In fact, in this session he
has missed only 2.4 percent of all the votes taken.

He
has seen the ups and downs of the Republican Party since his first campaign in
1990, when he pledged “no new taxes.”

His
rhetoric, however, hasn’t changed.

He
wants to permanently extend the Bush-era tax cuts that are to expire at the end
of the year, something he thought would be voted upon before Congress left Washington a month ago,
and he was critical of the House leadership for not doing so.

“It
was a dereliction of duty to leave Washington”
without calling for a vote,he said recently during an interview at the Daily News. “50
Democrats wanted to vote on it.”

Camp,
who could become chairman of the Ways and Means Committee if Republicans
capture the House of Representatives, said because no action was taken Americans
now are looking at a “$3.8 trillion tax increase” at the beginning of the year
and continued uncertainty over tax and regulatory issues.

“They
didn’t want to make the difficult decisions,” he said.

If
re-elected Camp said he will work to reduce government spending and to repeal
the health care reform that was passed earlier this year, parts of which
already are in place. He is a big supporter of the Pledge to America, which
is a Republican pledge to “ repair our economy and
reclaim our government for the people.”

The
21-page document is a blueprint for the next congressional session, calling for
stopping job-killing tax hikes, rolling back discretionary spending,
establishing caps to limit federal spending and require a minimum of three days
for members to read legislation between draft and vote, among other items.

When
reminded that the Pledge is similar to the“Contract with America,” a
document House minority leader Newt Gingrich used as the basis for the 1994
House takeover by Republicans and which subsequently was forgotten in the early
free-spending years of the George W. Bush administration.

“Yeah,
that did happen,” he acknowledged. “And we were fired because of that.”

Camp
has long been critical of the health care legislation, insisting that it
doesn’t reduce costs, it does increase taxes and that it “cooks the books” on
income and expenditures.

“You
can’t have an entitlement expansion without increasing taxes, without
increasing the debt,” he said.

“We
actually did decrease costs,” Camp said about legislation he wrote that would
have been an alternative to the Obama legislation. In fact the legislation did
many of the same things the Obama legislation does — covering people with
pre-existing conditions, not allowing insurance companies to drop people if
they become sick and doing away with caps on medical care. The Congressional
Budget Office said the legislation would save Americans about 4 percent a year
in costs.

It
was ignored by the Democrats in the House.

Camp
said he believes that the debate over which type of alternative energy should
be getting the bulk of federal dollars is far from over, which is why he has
proposed a “alternative fuel tax credit.”

“We
don’t know what will emerge,” he said.

Camp
said this year’s campaign has been interesting.

“Clearly, the intensity is on the Republican
side,” he said. “I’m encouraged by what I see.”

Camp
said the media spotlight on his work on Ways and Means this past year has
boosted his visibility in the community.

“I’m
visible all the time. They’ve seen me fighting on their behalf because of the
position I’m in,” he said.

My comments:

Todd Gambrell may have won voters by his column, but
he neither responded to nor refuted my “baseless” claims. Two people pointed
that out to me and of course Joe said the same thing in his column. I was
surprised at Gambrell’s use of my first name in
connection with such a demand for an apology. He acted like we are friends.
While we have met, I haven’t talked to him in years.

I can only conclude from his non-response
that the Pledge supports the egregious policies I described andi
repeat them here:

We have already heard Republicans talking
about the minimum wage law, social security, and other social programs, so be
prepared for the onslaught against progressive accomplishments over the last
century. We need to stand up for progressive policies.

I was furious after I read the blatantly
partisan “news” article about Dave Camp reproduced above. Why didn’t Wirtz just
say “vote for Dave!”? that’s what the article was
about, not news.